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The-Acid

Spotting ‘the next big thing’ is a tricky and treacherous business that primarily revolves around assertion of one’s own tastes, shouting ‘I’m cooler than you’ louder than the next person and falling head-first into a ditch of hubris. However, there are moments when objective clarity seems to illuminate one’s opinions and we’d like to think that our heralding of The-Acid as ‘the next big thing’ surpasses self-proclaiming pitfalls and truly does appear to be a clear-cut, sure-fire, dead-cert THING.

Here are our reasons why:

First off there’s the genre; post-dubstep skewing heavily towards indie-pop, pitching perfectly at that central ven diagram point between after-partyers, bedroom DJs and the ATP crowd. The timbre plays an integral role in defining this, with thrumming sub-bass, 90s snares and claps, four-chord guitar lines, arpeggiating 808s and vocals drifting from whispered to falsetto and even a touch of autotune merging in crystal clear yet atmospheric production. The harmonies and melodies formed from this are simple, soft and sweet enough to be hummable without ever being saccharine or overly reliant on hooks, while the sound is constructed from enough layers to pique interest without being so abrasive or experimental that it alienates. At different times it recalls acts such as The XX, James Blake, Bon Iver and How To Dress Well, while consistently sounding identifiable and original. While describing it as being a check-box amalgamation of successful current musical trends may sound like an underhand criticism (and we may ourselves have thought that way about it at first) its quality and clarity genuinely shine through and we’re sold on it being something quite special indeed.

If anyone can tell us anything more about them we’d love to hear it (they currently have no working website, no Facebook page and a grand total of two Twitter followers – one of which is us). But we’ll tell you what – if they don’t get big, we’ll eat our hats.

For your own opinion of whether or not they’ll be big, listen to their brand new EP here: